Rhee Deploys 'Army of Believers'
Stakes High for D.C. Schools Chief's 45 Handpicked Principals

By Bill Turque
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, July 5, 2008

Rikki Hunt Taylor is filled with fire and educational jargon. When the Takoma Educational Center's new principal describes her vision for the school, she promises "a data-driven culture" and teachers committed to "differentiated instruction."

To reach out to families and stimulate enrollment in the pre-K-8 school's neighborhood near Walter Reed Army Medical Center, she plans to knock on every door this summer, introducing herself as if she was a candidate for City Council.

"It's my grass-roots campaign for Takoma," said Taylor, 35, a former Head Start administrator for the District. "I want to know whether Takoma has been an option, and why or why not."

Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee's quest to transform D.C. schools will likely rise or fall largely on the shoulders of the Rikki Hunt Taylors she is putting in place.

Rhee has just finished filling 45 vacancies in her principal corps, the first full cohort of school leaders

she has assembled since

her arrival in June 2007.

Each one represents a huge bet for Rhee. The link between student achievement and the quality of principals is beyond dispute. The right leader can forge dramatic changes in the level of teaching and the overall climate of a school.

The new hires reflect the evolving nature of the urban principal's task, including the traditional needs of children from low-income families or troubled neighborhoods and the new, high-stakes demands of such laws as No Child Left Behind, which require continuous improvement in test scores.

The skill set looks more like that of a high-energy chief executive who develops teachers, builds coalitions with parents and community leaders, and engages nonprofit groups and other outside players to bolster instruction.

Rhee is trying to shape a generation of principals who share the heart of her approach, which means sifting test results to identify student deficits (the "data-driven culture") and tailoring teaching to meet children's specific needs ("differentiated instruction").

And, like Rhee, they are devoted to the proposition that poor children in bad schools deserve a full and fair chance to learn.

"Every child in the building, I want to know what their weaknesses are," said Dwan Jordon, 35, an assistant principal in Prince George's County who turned down a promotion there to take over one of the District's weakest schools, Sousa Middle School in Southeast Washington.

"An army of believers," said Barbara Byrd-Bennett, former Cleveland school superintendent, describing what Rhee is attempting to build. Byrd-Bennett heads the Washington office of New Leaders for New Schools, a nonprofit organization that puts promising young educators through a crash program and then helps them land jobs. Taylor is one of three New Leaders graduates who will head D.C. schools this fall.

Rhee's task, she said, is "getting the best candidates who understand the depth of the work and are willing to get dirty and be held accountable for student achievement."

About half of the 45 openings were created by Rhee's decision to fire principals deemed unable or unwilling to execute her program. Some arrived brimming with the same intensity and resolve as Jordon and Taylor. The new hires said Rhee made it plain that they will exit through the same door if they don't deliver.

Three years is frequently cited as a reasonable window of opportunity for a principal to overhaul a failing school: a year to establish order and assemble the right staff, a year to implement changes and another to fine-tune or take the school to the next level.

Jordon said the message from Rhee and her senior aides was not to count on three years.

"Their interest was in immediate improvement and immediate change," said Jordon, 35, a Coolidge High alumnus who is excited by "the sense of urgency in D.C. with education" and Rhee's promise to support him with extra staff and other resources.

Rhee vowed a national search for top-flight principals. Deputy chancellor Kaya Henderson said the staff turned over every rock, scouring test scores of schools in other big city systems, looking for dramatic upward spikes and seeking out the principal. They eyed local principal-of-the-year awards programs.

"Not just the winners, but everyone that got nominated," Henderson said.

The wide net didn't return much. About two-thirds of the more than 700 applicants were from the surrounding suburbs or already working for the school system, according to figures provided by the chancellor's office. It's not a surprising result. The city offers no relocation assistance to principals, according to application information on the D.C. schools Web site. And as "at will" employees, there is no guarantee that a job would last for more than a year.

So the principals class of 2008-09, which officially began work last week, looks decidedly local. Along with Taylor and Jordon, new hires include Terry Dade, a former Fairfax County teacher taking over at Tyler Elementary in Southeast, and Maurice Kennard, an assistant principal at Walker-Jones Elementary in Northwest hired to head the new Francis-Stevens Educational Center in Foggy Bottom, which will offer pre-kindergarten through eighth grade.

They enter a school system churning with change on an unprecedented scale. Some school advocates say Rhee took far too long to complete her hiring, which diminished the pool of quality candidates and placed those who got the jobs in a difficult position. With less than two months before classes begin, they said, there is simply not enough time to prepare for the turbulence.

"It's not like you can pin a star on someone's chest and say, 'Go in and clean up Dodge City' " D.C. State Board of Education member Mary Lord said.

At Sousa, Jordon will take control of a school in federally mandated restructuring under No Child Left Behind, where just 16 percent tested at proficiency level in reading in 15 percent in math last year.

Dade faces a different set of pressures. Tyler is one of the District's bright spots, where former principal Michelle Pierre-Farid oversaw big gains in reading and math scores in her three-year tenure before moving on to the Friendship charter school system. Her successor lasted just one year and although this year's scores are not yet available, some officials feel that momentum has been lost.

"The staff wants to get back to that level of success," said Dade, another New Leaders alumnus who taught at Franconia Elementary before spending a one-year residency as an assistant at Brent Elementary.

With less than two months before classes begin, Kennard is all but creating a school from scratch. The former Francis Junior High is becoming a pre-kindergarten-through-eighth campus slated to receive students from Stevens Elementary, which Rhee closed this year because of declining enrollment.

It's not clear how many Stevens families will be coming this fall. Many are leery of Francis, wondering about the safety of small children in a building with adolescents.

Kennard says he'll probably have to contact the families individually -- not an easy task in the dead of summer -- to sell them on the school.

His task is complicated by the building itself, which is a shambles. A $5 million redesign to accommodate elementary and preschoolers is at a standstill, caught in the crossfire of a political and policy dispute between Rhee and D.C. Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray (D).

Dressed in a gray pinstriped suit for his first day on the job Tuesday, Kennard sat through a sobering meeting with his "transition team" of parents, staff members and community leaders.

"I think we all understand that Mr. Kennard is in an impossible situation," said Mike Silverstein, an Advisory Neighborhood Commission member.

Kennard, 30, said he was nervous but unfazed by his mounting difficulties. His school would be ready.

"I don't have a choice," he said.